President Obama softens tone, but does not back off criticism of Gates arrest
By: Andy Barr July 23, 2009 01:37 PM EST

The White House today sought to soften the tone of President Obama’s criticism of the Cambridge, Mass. police’s arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his own home earlier this week. But Obama said in an interview with ABC News that he was surprised by the controversy over the statement “because I think it was a pretty straight forward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home."

Asked about the incident at his nationally televised news conference last night, Obama said he thought “any of us would be pretty angry” about such an incident and that “the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.”

After several major police unions expressed outrage over the remarks this morning, White House spokesman Robert L. Gibbs told reporters that Obama had not meant to specifically criticize James M. Crowley, the white Cambridge police sergeant who arrested Gates, an African American. .

"Let me be clear,” Gibbs said. “ He was not calling the officer stupid, okay? He was denoting that . . . at a certain point the situation got far out of hand, and I think all sides understand that."

In the ABC interview, Obama said it didn’t make sense to him that the situation at Gates’s home escalated to the point that he was arrested. "I think that I have extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job that police officers do," Obama said. "And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down.”

Referring to Crowley, Obama said: "From what I can tell the sergeant who was involved is an outstanding police officer, but...better if cooler heads had prevailed."

Crowley defended his actions Thursday, saying in an interview with Boston Globe that he would not apologize for arresting Gates and he is “not a racist.” Several police organizations expressed disappointment with Obama for weighing in on what they see as a local policing issue.

“Statements like that made without the facts don’t do much to assuage any mistrust between the community and the men and women that protect it,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police.

Pasco said that among the organization’s membership, which makes up the largest police union in the country, “We’ve had a widespread broad based emotional reaction to [the president’s comment].”

“It’s been negative by and large,” Pasco said of the reaction.

“We don’t want our members to judge the president just off this,” he added. “But we certainly are disappointed that he said it.

The National Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the presidential election, but even unions that supported the then-Sen. Obama in last fall’s election have misgivings with his recent comment.

“We’re a little disappointed,” said Rich Roberts, the public information office for International Union of Police Associations, which endorsed Obama.

Roberts wanted to make clear that the organization does not have a “quarrel with the president or administration at all,” but he said the president’s comment reflected to his union’s members that Obama “was looking at it from a certain perspective that was not a police perspective.”

Harold MacGilvray, president of the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition said “obviously we’re disappointed” by the president’s comment.

“I’m shocked that the president of the United States during a nationally televised primetime address to the nation on an important issue, health care, that he would take the time to comment on this,” said MacGilvray. “For the president of the United States to make a generalized statement like that about law enforcement is disappointing.”

MacGilvrey added that Obama “didn’t have all the facts” before addressing the issue.

The only police group to support Obama was the National Black Police Association. “We support what he’s saying because there was really no reason to arrest Professor Gates,” said Ronald Hampton, the group’s executive director “He was asked the question by a reporter and he answered.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who is African American, reacted more cautiously to the incident than Obama, withholding any judgment about police behavior.

“The incident involving Prof. Gates is upsetting to me. I have read excerpts of the police statement and of Prof. Gates' statement, but the fact remains that I was not there,” Patrick, a Democrat, said during an online chat on the Boston Globe’s website this afternoon.

“It is upsetting to me that an individual cannot raise his voice in his own home without risking arrest,” Patrick said. “I was glad to see that the charges were promptly dropped.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was more outspoken, calling the situation “ outrageous” in a statement to POLITICO.

“The notion that yelling at a police officer is a crime is a violation of free speech,” Frank said. “And the idea that someone can be disturbing the peace in his own home is like arresting him for indecent exposure in his own bathtub.”

Republicans meanwhile have already begun attempts to try to capitalize on any anger over the president’s remark.

The National Republican Congressional Committee sent out numerous releases targeting the state’s Democratic congressional candidates.

“The president was slow to point out any wrongdoing in the wake of the Iranian election and his administration was quick to force through a failed stimulus plan even though they ‘misread’ the economy,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “This is certainly a questionable rush to judgment coming from a president who hasn’t exactly been quick to call out unconscionable behavior by a merciless foreign dictator.”